Olney Friends School

Video camera in hand, three television broadcasting students from Ohio University visited campus back in April.

The students produced three short films for local public television station WOUB about life at Olney Friends School. The shows were broadcast over the summer in the Athens, Ohio viewing area.

The three films are available for viewing on YouTube:

Originally aired on NewsWatch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hjkgJsVCpQ (about 4 ½ minutes)

A two-part broadcast on Athens Midday:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjbEaZHcB0E (about 6 ½ minutes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcVujqPpPhM (about 6 ½ minutes).

Question: How long does it take to cross Ohio from southeast to northwest, traveling from Barnesville to Bowling Green?

Answer:  Four hours by car – or four days by bike.

Recently returned from this 235-mile journey are head of school Rich Sidwell ’63 and assistant head of school and director of admissions Mary Ellen Newport.

The two represented Olney at the Friends General Conference (FGC) Gathering in July. This annual event draws hundreds of Quakers from around the United States and around the world each summer.

Having extended an invitation to others to join in the bicycle ride, they were joined by Shakur Sevigny, a hospice chaplain from Portland, Oregon; and Jon Webb, an expert cyclist from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sidwell and Newport biked in only one direction. They returned from the conference by car.

What reflections would they share with other would-be travelers? First, recumbent bikes are the way to go. Second, this is the kind of trip where “you learn to cooperate and support and enjoy each other – or else it’s miserable.”

The small party did well together, they concur – even hauling a watermelon from a roadside stand the final four miles to the campground where they stayed the first night for a celebratory feast.

Another favorite moment also came early in the trip, when they rode by a natural spring at the edge of Londonderry Crossroads, about 30 miles from Barnesville. A sign welcomed them to drink. Cups and a ladle were provided.

At the conference, Newport offered a workshop on “Dancing the Aramaic Lord’s Prayer.” Sidwell participated in a workshop on “Right Relationship: Economy, People, and Earth.” Both promoted Olney Friends School throughout the Gathering.

Plans for next year’s Gathering – to be hosted by Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa – include collaborating with Scattergood Friends School in Iowa, and the Meeting School in Vermont to spotlight the farm, garden, and food programs at all three schools.

The fourth and final concert in a summer recital series by visiting musicians at Olney Friends School will feature the work of violist Philip Tietze.

The concert, in the Collection Room of the historic Main Building on the Olney Friends School campus, begins at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 3. It is free and open to the public.

Tietze is one of more than two dozen visiting musicians who staff the Friends Music Camp, which brings 80 students ages 10-18 to Barnesville each summer for four weeks of musical instruction.

Tietze is professor of viola at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana and former faculty member at West Virgina University. He has performed as a member of many leading professional ensembles, including the Denver Symphony, the American Sinfonietta, the Grand Teton festival orchestra and has also served as principal violist of the Wichita and Colorado Springs Symphonies.

Selections for the evening will include the following:

• Shoah, Lamentation for Solo Viola by P. Tietze, performed by Philip Tietze

• Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano Mov. II by Poulenc, performed by Adam McCord, soprano saxophone, Jacob Somerson, bassoon, Nicholas Hutchinson, piano

• Scaramouche – Braziliera by Milhaud, performed by Adam McCord, alto saxophone and Nicholas Hutchinson, piano

• Sonata for Clarinet and Piano Mov. III by Poulenc, performed by Pam Wilkinson, clarinet and Nicholas Hutchinson, piano

Two years ago at this time, Barnesville composer Clyde Tipton was teaching music at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. The family relocated to Ohio in part so their son Bryan ‘11 could attend Olney Friends School. This summer, Clyde is teaching musical composition and improvisation at Friends Music Camp on the Olney campus.

Tipton is one of several visiting musicians performing in a recital by Friends Music Camp staff on Wednesday, July 28 at 7:30 p.m. in the Collection Room of the Main Building on the Olney Friends School campus. The concert is free and open to the public.

Tipton, on piano, and Philip Tietze, on viola, will perform a piece Tipton wrote over the last two weeks entitled “A Walk around the Lake.”

The piece is a reflection on Tipton’s many meditative walks around the lake at Barnesville Memorial Park. “I usually go by myself, and I think my own thoughts,” he says.

Of the composition, Tipton says, “It’s a piece about outer nature and inner nature at the same time. I will use not just the ‘outside’ but also the inside of the piano – not just the keyboard. I will also strum the strings like a harp, pluck them, scrape them, and use drum mallets to pound them.”

Additional concert selections will include:

• A Mozart clarinet trio, performed by Francis Yun on piano, Martha Hyde on clarinet, Philip Tietze, viola
• Schubert Quintet in C, Movements III and IV, performed by Henrik Karapetyan, violin, Maria Bessmeltseva, violin, Philip Tietze, viola, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello and Miriam Liske-Doorandish, cello
• Selections from Fünf Rückert Liedr, Minnita Daniel-Cox, soprano, and Nicholas Hutchinson, piano
• In the Garden of Allah by Don Henley, performed by three Friends Music Camp students and most of the staff
• Across the Great Divide by Kate Wolfe, performed by Carolyn Stanley, banjo and vocals, and Sharon Stacy Blackwell, guitar and vocals

The fourth and final concert in the staff recital series will be Tuesday, August 3.

Friends Music Camp brings 80 students ages 10-18 from around the country each summer to the Olney Friends School campus for a month-long immersion program in music education and performance.

Three standout musicians, comprising the New River Ensemble, will be among those featured in the second recital offered by the staff of Friends Music Camp at Olney Friends School.

The public is invited to attend the free concert, which begins at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20 in the Collection Room of the Main Building.

“New River Ensemble taps into the musical current of our time, presenting an integration of styles and periods of music performing original compositions and that of others,” says clarinetist Martha Hyde.

Brendan Cooney, jazz and classical pianist; Hyde, clarinetist/composer/vocalist; and Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cellist and improviser, are the members of the New River Ensemble.

Cooney is a pianist living in Philadelphia. He is a recent winner of a grant from the American Composers Forum for his daring new piano trio project, the Rhinoceri Trio, whose album is set to be released in early 2011. Cooney also plays baritone in the highly acclaimed West Philadelphia Orchestra, a brass band playing music from Eastern Europe. At Friends Music Camp he leads the all-camp choir, co-directs the jazz band, and teaches private lessons. Both the choir and jazz band are premiering his new works this summer.

Liske-Doorandish, cellist, lives in the mountains of southwest Virginia, where she is presently preparing an eclectic CD of solo cello music, reflecting her interest in old, new, and world music as well as her love of the voice of the cello. She teaches cellists ages 3-adult through her private cello studio, Community Cello Works, with a thoughtful pedagogy based in her years of Suzuki teacher training.

Hyde recently co-founded the Brooklyn Music Teachers Cooperative with 12 other teachers. She has played in venues ranging from Alice Tully Hall to CBGB’s to the cathedral of St. John the Devine as well as tours on four continents. She can regularly be seen in the orchestra pits on Broadway and Radio City Music Hall and has performed with such luminaries as Dizzy Gillespie, Carmen McRae, Whoopi Goldberg, and Antonio Banderas. She is a member of the Gotham Wind Symphony, which has released three CDs, and she is also on numerous cast recordings. She has recently completed recording her debut solo CD.

The complete program for Tuesday’s concert will include the following:

• Saxsounds III (Diminishing Returns) by Steven Galante performed by Adam McCord and Martha Hyde, alto saxes
• Seven Bridges Road by Steve Young performed by Martha Hyde, clarinet and vocals, Carolyn Stanley, vocals, Brendan Cooney, banjo and vocals, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello and vocals, D.R. Stanley, guitar and vocals
• Clarinet Trio by Mozart performed by Francis Yun, piano, Martha Hyde, clarinet, Philip Tietze, viola
• Cello Quintet, Mov. II by Schubert performed by Maria Bessmeltseva, Henrik Karapetyan, violins, Philip Tietze, viola, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, Miriam Liske-Doorandish, celli
• Sonata Op. 28 No. 3 by Prokofiev performed by Xavier Suarez, piano
• Moments at Walden Pond, Mov. 6 by Patrick Simpson performed by Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello

• Clarinet Trio, Mov. IV by Brahms – New River Ensemble, Martha Hyde, clarinet, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello, Brendan Cooney, piano

Additional concert dates are July 28 and August 3. The audience can expect a diverse range of musical styles, from classical to contemporary, often including at least one original composition.

The public is invited to the first in a series of Friends Music Camp staff recitals beginning at 7:30 p.m. tonight in the Collection Room of the Main Building on the Olney Friends School campus. The program will include the following:

• Freight Train by Elizabeth Cotten performed by Carolyn Stanley, vocals and guitar

• The Body of Your Dreams by Jacob TerVeldhuis performed by Francis Yun, piano and tape

• Clarinet Trio Op. 114, Mov III by Johannes Brahms performed by Martha Hyde, clarinet, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello and Brendan Cooney, piano

• Quintet in C, Mov. I by Franz Schubert performed by Henrik Karapetyan, violin, Maria Bessmeltseva, violin, Philip Tietze, viola, Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello and Miriam Liske-Doorandish, cello

• Prelude and Fuge in C minor from Suite No. 5 by Johann Sebastian Bach performed by Lisa Liske-Doorandish, cello

• Meine Lippen, sie Kussen so heiss from Giuditta by Franz Lehar performed by Minnita Daniel-Cox, soprano and Nicholas Hutchinson, piano.

Additional staff recitals will occur on Tuesday, July 20; Wednesday, July 28; and Tuesday, August 3.

Friends Music Camp brings 80 students ages 10-18 from around the country each summer to the Olney Friends School campus for a month-long immersion program in music education and performance.

Twenty-nine musicians and 81 campers ages10-18 will arrive at Olney Friends School this weekend for the start of the thirty-first annual Friends Music Camp.

The camp blends individual lessons, practice time, classes, ensemble work, and other more traditional “summer camp” activities for four weeks. Students this year hail from 13 different states and four foreign countries, including Spain, Costa Rica, Bolivia, and Japan.

In preparation for the students’ arrival, 12 rental pianos were delivered to campus earlier in the week, bringing the campus total to 15. Pianos are installed in the math room, the chemistry lab, the biology lab, in various classrooms and dorm rooms, even in the infirmary.

The camp’s educational philosophy emphasizes the individual growth and progress of each student. Students must have at least one year’s previous study in their chosen instrument.

“Some are polishing pieces for competitions the following year. Others are learning the fundamentals of reading music,” says camp co-director Nicholas Hutchinson. “We take them at whatever level they enter; we want them to be at the next level when they leave us.”

Nearly 70% of this year’s campers are returning for a second year – or a third, or a fourth. Word of mouth is the way most students hear of the camp.

While the camp is based on a Quaker educational philosophy, students and staff come from all different faith traditions. About half the staff are Quaker, along with about a third of the students.

“Many of our new staff hear the word ‘Quakerism’ and think of the Underground Railroad or of the Quaker Oats box,” says Hutchinson.

Instead, says co-founder and co-director Peg Champney, the camp emphasizes to students the importance of “making your life mean something.”

The public is invited to attend weekly staff recitals during the camp on selected Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Admission is free.

Concert dates are July 14, 20, 28; and August 3. Each recital begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Main Building, Collection Room.

Staff recitals typically last 60-90 minutes. The audience can expect a diverse range of musical styles, often including at least one original composition. Ensemble performances are the norm, drawing on the skills and interests of two dozen visiting musicians, many of whom are accomplished professionals or graduate students from highly regarded music programs across the country.

“For some years staff and teachers have dreamed of having a sedan for trips that do not require a multi-passenger van. Students being driven to doctors appointments, staff to conferences and meetings, and quick errands to nearby destinations in general. Rich and I have been looking for a Prius with fewer miles so that we could give our 2005 to the school. It has been so faithful and performed so well that we wanted to pass along the savings and convenience of a Prius to Olney staff,” says Mary Sidwell, director of development.

This spring, she and Rich Sidwell ’63, head of school, donated their hybrid vehicle for school use. The Prius joins two six-passenger vans and one nine-passenger van that are used frequently for expeditions, including biology field work, community service, class field trips to nearby cities (recent examples: the Islamic Center in Wheeling, the Cleveland Museum of Art), campus-wide outings to nearby destinations, and the annual college trip for juniors.

“Whenever we select a vehicle for school use, we consider its fuel efficiency, among other factors,” says Rich Sidwell. “One benefit of the Prius is that – at least in my experience – it typically gets an average of 45-52 miles per gallon. Making wise use of resources is a guiding principle in all the decisions we make at Olney,” he says.

Olney Friends School recently welcomed a visitor from Japan who survived the atomic bomb attack by the United States on the city of Hiroshima in 1945.

Rumi Hanagaki was five years old when the bomb was dropped. She lost all memory of the attack and its aftermath for nearly six decades. Once the memories returned in detail, she began speaking about her experiences to audiences in Japan and abroad.

Traveling in the United States for about two weeks, Hanagaki spoke at a wide variety of colleges, high schools, elementary schools, and churches. In an evening presentation to students at Olney Friends School on Thursday, April 30, she told her story, folded origami peace cranes for students, and shared her hope for the disuse of all nuclear weapons.

Hanagaki’s visit to the United States was sponsored by the Crosscurrents International Institute, a nonprofit organization in Sidney, Ohio dedicated to citizen diplomacy.

Hanagaki’s next stop after Barnesville was New York City, where she attended the 2010 United Nations conference to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Before stopping through Barnesville, Hanagaki visited both the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, home to the “boxcar” airplane that dropped a hydrogen bomb on the city of Nagasaki; and the Dayton International Peace Museum.

The Environmental Education Council of Ohio sent a delegation to tour Olney Friends School as part of its annual meeting in April. Four environmental educators from across the state chose to visit the school. These included two elementary school teachers, one university professor, and one metro parks employee.

The visitors toured the Main Building, received an overview of environmental education at Olney, and learned more about the farm and garden program. They also participated in the Friday morning all-school sing, a weekly event.

Members of the group hailed from all parts of the state, including northern Ohio near Bowling Green and Toledo; the Akron area; Columbus; and central Ohio between Columbus and Cleveland.

“We had a wonderful visit. I was extremely impressed with the school, with the curriculum, and with the site itself. At times, experiential learning is not emphasized in grades 9 through 12. At Olney, it’s obviously at the top of the list,” says Herb Broda, professor of education at Ashland University.

Broda is the author of Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning: Using the Outdoors as an Instructional Tool, K-8. His forthcoming book, Moving the Classroom Outdoors: Schoolyard-Enhanced Learning in Action, shares the results of interviews with teachers across the US and Canada who are making instructional use of the outdoors.